on this. breaking news this hour multiple rocket attacks are reported in a rock. or a place where u.s. troops are stationed also the green zone close to the american embassy in baghdad also residential area we've got the latest. also coming up a senior police chief says levels of child criminal exploitation in britain are back to big. levels blaming a star at c.m. increasingly powerful drug on. children at risk in our media where a criminal scheme has been revealed helping foreigners illegally.

around the clock across the world this is your artsy international from the team and myself you know neal hello and welcome we begin with breaking news several rocket attacks have hit a rock close vicinity to the american embassy in baghdad and also a military base near the capital for more on that some joined live in the studio by shit down off. tensions seemingly ratcheting up here well indeed something is clearly in the now we do not know what exactly was the target of this attack but we do know that there have been at least 3 rounds of mortar strikes and some of the some of those mortar shells they landed in close vicinity to an end to an american base right next to the rocky capital baghdad some of them landed apparently next door in the green zone now what is a green. zone essentially it is a city within

a city you have baghdad the larger area and the green zone is the extra and more carefully protected zone within the iraqi capital which is essentially home to will almost all embassies ruined you know expensive buildings residential expensive residential properties expensive hotels and so on and so forth it is viewed as the safe zone within iraq now and within within baghdad i should say so this is this is where the airstrikes were this is where the mortar shells landed and no casualties reported so far 5 people said to be injured in those strikes again we do not know whether or not they were military or not but indeed it does come at a very very sensitive time when you raney and general some say the 2nd most powerful man in iran can seem silly money he was gunned down he was he was killed

in an american air strike and anyone who follows news he knows about those they know about those developments and so indeed something is in the air and my colleague my colleague khaled more play and he has more and that is a whole report prepared on what the death of this top general top arabian general on the rocky soil could mean for the global peace treaty. the u.s. leadership has been saying on almost every platform they can find that they are working to deescalate tensions with the islamic republic of iran that was the time to take this action so that we could disrupt this plot deter further aggression from qassam salami in the iranian regime as well as to attempt to deescalate the situation it's not an easy case to make killing the country's 2nd most powerful person the most well known military leader and commander of the elite could force of the revolutionary guard. doesn't look like deescalation however washington

insists its actions were a defensive measure at the direction of the president the u.s. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u.s. personnel abroad by killing costume soleimani this strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans the iranians are already promising revenge the supreme national security council of iran held an emergency meeting on friday and announced that they had made difficult decisions at the right time and place the vengeance will be extracted south of aggression by the us i mean they should they should expect anything as it is a lot of this this aggression the international community is now gripped by fear that we could be on the brink of war there is no justification under international law or moral law our constitution is just aggravation and the fact they were there in a way as a guest and have an embassy there we've never been given any authority to do what we did i think is. and they're doing this to make us safer they said they had to do

this to make americans say complete nonsense i feel less safe because there will be retaliation and expansion and who knows what is going to lead to. washington says it's an ally of the iraqi government and it's working in iraq's best interest however baghdad is completely on the happy with this move the assassination of an iraqi military commander is an aggression on iraq as a state government and people it's a flagrant violation of iraq's sovereignty and dangerous escalation that triggers a destructive war in iraq the region and the world it violates the conditions authorizing the presence of u.s. troops on iraqi soil the iraqis don't consider this to be a particularly friendly gesture. to restart the war again among the shia who don't want this to happen what has happened. a blatant violation of iraqi sovereignty the

fact that he's a high state official in a government that we're not at war with we've crossed the rubicon not only in tehran but in moscow beijing pyongyang caracas they all have to sit there and say to themselves all right the americans now feel entitled to kill anybody and our government because of what disagreements over syria or whatever else. the international response has been vocal china says it is concerned turkey is angry and syria accuse the united states of spreading instability it's a pity to see. the get it by what the united states used. to kid somebody. the way gangs do it but not everyone agrees though israel says job well done president roh deserves all the credit for acting swiftly forcefully decisively business with the united states

in this just struggle force peace security and so firms america's nato allies are not thrilled at all we have woken up to dangerous world the us action did not make it any easier to reduce tensions parties to deescalate for the conflict is in none of our interests. it didn't exactly go over well at home either american media has echoed all sorts of allegations about solid money most americans had never heard of before saying he is the new face of terrorism and evil but democrats say that trump is rushing the country to war without congressional approval the risk of a much longer military engagement in the middle east is acute. and immediate. this action may well have brought our nation closer to another endless war exactly the

kind of endless war the president promised he would not drag us into now donald trump is defending his mother he says he saved lives and that he's protecting the country however in some of his responses he's actually said that solomonic should have been killed years ago so why now is perhaps donald trump trying to play the card of being a national savior in the lead up to an election i don't foresee. making a rash choice because they understand the neo cons who are behind charms policy and trump him so funny iran they don't want anything more than to have iran do a very who high profile strike back the us propaganda machine is in high gear demonizing soleimani who 99.9 percent of americans had never heard of 2 days a. go. worse than hitler killing americans left and right none of this is true none of this is supported by facts but the propaganda machine is on high high high alert and americans are being prepared for another war so i don't see the iranians taking

the bait well on saturday the arena and military war and it has dozens of potential targets for reprisal attacks the street of hormuz is a vital point for the west and a large number of american destroyers and warships cross their crucial american targets in the region have been identified by iran some 35 u.s. targets in the region as well as to leave are within our reach. let's bring on to the program. is a middle east especially speaking to us this hour from paris there is speculation surrounding who could be behind these rocket attacks of course with iran or pro iranian militias suspected what what's your take at this stage. as i consider it thank you for inviting me 1st as i can say for now we don't we see don't lock was behind us just these attacks that you just said was 1st when we should say and

that's the most important thing is that when the americans attack and kill generally money this is an act of or direct war and this isn't an act of terror because they attacked an official general country in a foreign country if another country would have done that the americans and the whole war with iraq fall in love them and say this is an act of terror this is terrorism and when the americans they do something they kill someone they say it's a preemptive strike or it's for the good of the country sort of this is this is ridiculous they killed someone they did an act of terror and. iran should do time yet and iran must retaliate to chip its credibility but in what way shape or form we still don't know how iran is done to respond what's your feeling about today though that the attacks there are ratcheting up you know at last come perhaps 56 air rocket attacks today. do you have a feeling that it's proxies in the country doing this i feel it's proxies in the

country because iran will not we can start them are. they going to take the time. they used to be it isn't that they usually take their time and they're in a cold and these these attacks are probably the proxies because they recent at least and as a terrorist and as soon as they lease that these these proxies as terrorist as a terrorist group they start attacking american interests but i don't think it's. retaliation against murder yes it's a nation of generosity money begun to retaliate but in the future yes you're right to say very little is confirmed it has been reported that hezbollah militias have informed the iraqi police to stay away from u.s. bases starting from sunday evening if those reports are confirmed how big are the chances do you think of a hezbollah direct attack on the u.s.

military. we don't know because there has been there has been iraqi and us that responded that the iraqis have a lot has a lot of power within the iraqi government and when the 1st attack on the embassy happened their. green zone that you just hope the but the other iraqis used to say that. during 2 months. they try to get into the screens and they couldn't get into that and the hezbollah the wrecking his luck got into that we've done we've done within hours so what they gonna do we still not the important thing is to not that. make it an act of war an act of terror and they should normally be responsible held responsible and even ran. earlier on saddam iraq decided to limit the work of the u.s. military in the country how does by god crush become the victim of the u.s.

around standoff here really. because the iraqi government doesn't have a lot of power unfortunately the proxy war that is happening now in the iraqi territory is because the iraqi government doesn't have a lot of power you have a lot of member of the parliament asking the u.s. troops to leave it's 3 and i think the best option for the iraqi government is to organize the americans to leave iraq so this. will not be. the place where the proxy war will happen so the best way for the record government is to ask the american sleep which is a very hard decision it's not easy to do so but they can do if they really want to ok well thanks very much for filling in some of the blanks today kharaj shamu middle east specialist live on the program thank you very much meanwhile protesters

are set to march in iran and 70 american cities with one of the biggest taking place currently in new york's times square several 100 people are waving and really in flanks holding portraits of general solomonic at their origin for the u.s. to leave the middle east well activists from groups veterans for peace the anti war coalition on other parts of his groups are taking part earlier 100 scabbard to i'd side senate minority leader chuck schumer's apartment block shouting no war with iran. all right let's move the program on for an hour to more world news this senior british police chief has warned that the levels of child exploitation in the country are edging towards their highest in over a century sean sauer who leads britain's modern slavery policing efforts say that drug gangs are the main driving force another star 80 policies also been

a factor. for these children they almost back to victorian times and to being criminally exploited these kids looking for family and security for understandable reasons of austerity stay youth services have been vacated this gap of youth provision between the school and family is the void of the exploited filling the home office figures say that in england alone there were more than 18 and a half hours in suspected child victims in the past year an increase of almost 3 quarters from 20 a dean or chief constable sawyer also pointed the finger at government cuts to youth services but the home office and says this doing all account is stop child exploitation i spoke to cheryl phoenix from the anti discrimination group the black child agenda who say that's almost impossible for youngsters to escape once they're dragged into a cycle of criminality. these children a lot of people fail to see them as the victims of what's going on and then they become criminalized and once you become criminalized at such a young age it's almost impossible to get yourself back on track

a lot of these young people that we find as part of these drug gangs as they called have been permanently excluded have been rejected from society so i think we need to go back a few steps and even jilt deal with our young people from a primary age level because as they get into secondary school which i can guarantee when they go back next week my phone will be ringing in constantly with children being kicked out of school for have a natural hair not having the right tie on or maybe their shoes so if we start stop doing this you know sledgehammer approach to what we are talking about as children then they wouldn't find themselves in these gangs in the 1st place but no one's actually listening or doing anything about the exclusion matter and the high rates and the issues that we have with young people in the caste system as well who if there was another study done you'd actually find that majority of these children have come through the care system are actually being exploited also in the sexual airiness in areas as well as just being on gangs and you know getting involved in county lines which a lot of them don't actually know what they're doing so is

a much bigger picture it's not as simple as what's been said. on the way rewarded for pushing painful reforms why there's anger in france over awarding a top gong to an american voting boss linked to the country's divisive pension changes are some other stories still a. financial one it is all about money laundering 1st to this is the 3 different. this is a good start well we have our 3 banks all set up for something in europe something in america or something overseas using the cayman islands it were killed. all of these banks are complicit in their. need to do some serious money laundering ok let's see how we did well we've got

a nice watch for max and for stacy oh beautiful jewelry. for max you know what money laundering is highly. watched kaiser of course. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy sunday shouldn't let it be an arms race is also a scary dramatic development that only going to exist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. worrying revelations about vulnerable children in our media where it's been discovered that for over 20 years a criminal network forced mothers to give up their newborns against their will so

that they could be sold abroad for adoption reifications got the story. this is a story with many children involved but it is not one of these typical happy ending tales a team might expect to hear during holiday season an investigation is on to go in now in armenia into an alleged black market adoption network believed to have been operating for years to citizens of the republic of armenia using their contacts in one of the republican obstetrical institutions organized the adoption of more than 3 dozen children more than 30 babies to italy and there were also cases of adoption by u.s. couples one of the victims has been trying to achieve justice for almost 2 decades already her name is susana she says 20 years ago doctors pressured her to give up her daughter stella threatening to report her case of a 16 year old mother to police and her father she signed papers refusing her rights

. because i held my baby in my arms after he was born i stayed in the hospital for another 2 days of song but i didn't see him ever again they told me that he was born prematurely and didn't survive and i was given some peoples to sign but i was too weak to understand. what i was signing in december the armenian authorities detained the country's chief ops attrition who sits on the accuses of threatening her and all other officials as part of the probe does make a better man was released several days later due to lack of evidence it sparked public outrage my dad custodian a lawyer who has represented susanna since 2013 has he's explanation for 7 long years we were shouting about it at every corner this is the mafia that is stronger and more powerful than the one controlling drug traffic i can say there were relatives of the rulers involved. in 2017 human rights watch released 102 page report titled when will i get to go home documenting thousands of cases of children

in armenia needlessly often forcefully isolated separated from their families and placed to institutions more than 90 percent of them have at least one living parent and said the international ngo then tried to draw attention to disturb an inaction by authorities the government over mean year has made some both commitments to reduce the number of children in institutions but needs to make sure this promise is backed by serious sustained action 2 years later last september the authorities noticed that 4 times as many children went to foreigners rather than to locals and started investigation all adoptions have since been suspended in armenia which might be a good news though changes little for those who believe their kids were wrongfully given away years ago but then there must be

a legal solution so that we could do validate the doctrine of the child it's about selling children i will do everything i will not die there must be a trial. and the pension scandal in fronts is casting a shadow over the country's highest state award the legion of honor some of the names that are up for the accolade are causing more than a little consternation being to the head of the french branch of an american asset management firm linked to the reforms black rock is one of the world's largest asset management firms and has operated in front since 2006 last summer it apparently pushed for privatizing part of the french pension system with a us style format it's accused of trying to take advantage of the country's deeply divisive reforms which have led to weeks of crippling strikes here charlotte devinsky. to be awarded france's a legion of honor medal is to was seen. the country's highest award so no doubt this year's recipients were pleased as punch to know that they'd been given the

nords when the list was announced one name provoked. appreciation it was that of the. head of the french branch of the american management company black rock. well critics accused of trying to cash in on the controversial pension changes that are currently being pushed through by the french government. directly benefit from the pension reform. the chose to honor the lead of blackrock france is nothing but an anecdote blackrock is simply the dark side of the pension reform john transource you believe president of blackrock france is promoted to officer of the legion of warner on january the 1st as a reward for pillaging of our pay as you go passions the presentation of the legion of honor to john francoise to relieve the provocation it reveals the close ties that exist between the graun and the world of finance he's selling the retirement

system to american pension funds it's a big deal strikes against pension reform and now into their 5th week it's the longest running strike in half a century across problems people have taken to the streets to let the government know that plans to merge 42 different pension plans into one universal system at the same time as raising the age of retirement are not welcome. on pension reform lose and everything and the next issue is the form of social security and social protection and. we are not at all in favor of the status quo we are in favor of ng this system but not tearing it down and we will go on it until it is withdrawn and improved but has already come under fire after it was accused of attacking french pensions now it's alleged to have provided recommendations to the government in regards to reform and way and it will benefit from any

privatization of france's redistributive pay as you go pension schemes something the government and but cork is at pains to do no i in no way have to desert and influence and the current pension system citron what dispatches the french market is a box of trees from player clark to stop talking nonsense. and there is a big but in an internal document unveiled by french t.v. in many t. last month that books of. streets is a lot bigger than the secretary of state to my time do you believe it outlines the high market value in france and how black wanted a piece of the pie critics say bestowing the legion of honor on black books money in france is a rule of the pillage of the country social work time and system and while black rock perhaps isn't as well placed as all this to take a huge slice of french pension savings it certainly is primed and ready to jump

into the market a lot of people are afraid that the complete credit pension scheme is going to change that this is just a 1st big step to go to something more. totally funded which is the contrary of what's going on today in france and this is obviously from a political point of view very bad time and the middle of this message strikes which is we're going this is a 2 strikes are going on for practically over a month richard records now a lot of that has satisfied a lot of people who are very tired of these strikes from the people say that they won't stop the strikes until the government draws back from its initial that it's giving the impression that there is a plan b. that there is something created by the government is actually just laying down the grounds of the 1st product but there's something worse coming out. a lot rob stop our news stories for this hour but don't stray too far as more crates are t. programs get their start in moments.

there's a lot of here is an economy where china has caught up more surpassed us you know the mobile payments markets 50 times the size of the us or over here still writing checks our banking system is not innovated 5 g. we've kind of recently woken up the last couple years and go wow we don't even have a company that can make 5 quick it's been a win win for china and it's been a lose lose for the u.s. . this idea as you point out the anecdotally cheney fired all the cia agents in the field because they were too sympathetic to the locals and he felt that was a liability in the major media spheres of washington d.c. they don't want those reporters those stars to rub elbows in the great unwashed on the fly over states because they may become sympathetic to the working class they may become sympathetic to the disenfranchised.

i'm action or can see welcome to going underground we will be back with a brand new season's arriving on january the 8th but until then we will be showing some of your favorite shows from the last season of the decade coming up in this show we go to ramallah to hear from the former palestinian prime minister nabil shaath now senior advisor to president abbas plus what is netflix's the crown season 3 not telling you about the british monarchy u.k. former home office minister and privy councillor to the queen norman bacon reveals

old if you want to hear from the mouths of libya coleman and helena bonham carter all of them all going up in today's going underground the 1st this month marks 45 years since yasser arafat became the 1st so-called on state leader to address the united nations general assembly in his speech he claimed optimism based on the attitudes human rights of the u.n. charter. this attitude heightens the hopes. attached to the u.n. contribution in defending the issues of peace justice and independence. to create a new world free from colonialism imperialism neo colonialism and racism in all its forms including zionism he went on to offer israel in all of her 15 years ago last monday he would be dead israel still continuing to violate un security council resolutions and in the past few days fighting has intensified between the so-called largest prison camp in the world gaza and illegally occupied israeli settlements israel's ambassador to london has not called back to going underground and

successive representatives have never been available for interview on this program joining me now from ramallah is senior palestinian official and former chief negotiator and prime minister of palestine neville shaath now bill thanks for coming on the program so the idea of says they attacked underground rocket launchers elite launching stations underground terrorist infrastructure and military forces of the islamic jihad organization your reaction to the renewed violence in gaza and the occupied territories and israel this is a pure cold blooded murder this is an assassination i mean this is this is not this is not a warfare this is a deliberate assassination of of people in their homes. with them that wives their brothers their children. this is the specialty of israelis so who do.